Went to a JETRO sponsored symposium on telematics at Palo Alto Ricky's this evening. This is another area where Japan happens to lead in the world. Apparently 20% of all new cars sold in Japan come with in vehicle telematics/navigation system. I remember that while I live there over the past few years, even small inexpensive cars often had a $1k or $2k nav/entertainment system loaded. TVs on the dash are legal in Japan, as they are in Germany.
All told, there are 8 million telematics systems on the road in Japan. Only 500,000 of them in the US, and those are mostly for fleet vehicles!
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